In 1987, FOX finds themselves down and out with their first unsuccessful show, but David Bowie doesn’t let us down. 1997 is a comedy bonanza as we visit Romy & Michelle’s High School reunion, Seinfeld’s turn as an anti-dentite, Homer’s discovery of Mr. Sparkle, and yada yada yada. In 2007, we fall for Chocolate Rain before Pokemon Diamond and Pearl capture our hearts.

4/21/87 – The Reopening of Carnegie Hall airs on CBS. The reopening was actually done in December of 1986, but didn’t air for a few months.

4/26/87 – Down and Out in Beverly Hills premieres on FOX, based on the movie of the same name from last year. It has the distinction of being the first ever show to be cancelled by Fox; only 5 of 13 episodes were produced.

The Legacy – Testament debut thrash metal band
The Ultra-Violence – bay area thrash metal debut from Death Angel
Let Me Up I’ve Had Enough – Tom Petty 7th studio album, made to sound live but isn’t, Jammin’ Me co-written by Bob Dylan
Introduce Yourself – Faith No More second album, better mixing, better version of We Care A Lot
Never Let Me Down – Bowie 17th album, certified gold, has title track, Day In Day Out etc. Mixed reception like a lot of 80s Bowie stuff.

1997:

Music

Cowboy – Erasure 8th studio album
Carrying Your Love With Me – George Strait
I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One – Yo La Tengo, rated one of the best 90s albums
Share my world – Mary J Blige third album

News

The ashes of Gene Roddenberry and Timothy Leary launched into space

Movies

Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion: Mira Sorvino, Lisa Kudrow

Volcano: Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche

TV

4/22: Frasier: “Ham Radio”

4/24/97 – The Friends episode “The One With the Screamer” guest stars Ben Stiller as Rachel’s new boyfriend, who has a habit of screaming at people

4/24/97 – The Seinfeld episode The Yada Yada airs, where George’s girlfriend may have used the phrase “yada yada” to gloss over cheating on him. Also, Jerry believes his dentist (played by Brian Cranston) may have converted to Judaism for the jokes

ANTI DENTITE (featuring Robert Wagner and Deborah Messing)

4/27: The Shining miniseries

4/27/97 – The Simpsons episode “In Marge We Trust” centers around Marge’s popularity as Springfield Church’s “Listen Lady” problem solver, but the most memorable facet of the show is the discovery that Homer bears a resemblance to a Japanese ad mascot named “Mr. Sparkle”

GAMES

next week is a little loaded so let’s talk about Fighter’s Megamix

Sega fighting game from the VF people, includes VF cast, Fighting Vipers, ppl from Virtua Cop 2, the car from Daytona USA, a palm tree, a bean wearing a sombrero. Did very well in Japan, remember it having good coverage in EGM / Gamepro.

4//22/07 – The fifth season of Celebrity Fit Club debuted on VH1. Some of the cast included Maureen McCormick (aka Marsha Brady) who last 34 lbs, Dustin “Screech” Diamond, who lost 30 lbs, TIffany (who lost 28 lbs) Warren G, who lost 31 lbs, and Da Brat, who lost 26 lbs

4/26/07 – The Office episode “Product Recall” features one of Jim’s most memorable pranks, as he imitates Dwight

4/27/07 – Raines ends its seven episode run on NBC. It starred Jeff Goldblum as Michael Raines, a haunted LAPD detective who interacts with dead crime victims to solve his cases,

Games

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl – DS versions, introduces GTS, huge post game, way to find Shinys and EV train with Poketch apps (this is before the iphone is a thing). Put about 300 hours into this

Made Man PS2 – crime game way late into PS2 era, crime author david fisher

SNK vs Capcom: Card Fighters Clash, strategy game a la Magic but with tons of characters you don’t know. Best known for an unavoidable bug that crashes the game, recalled carts

Yo La Tengo’s “I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One” is very rightfully heralded as one of the greatest records of the 90s. While it musically spans a wide range of diverse styles including folk, noise rock, shoegaze, drone, and hipster jazz, it consistently maintains this pensive-yet-inviting mood throughout its running time. Essential cuts are “Autumn Sweater,” “We’re an American Band,” “Sugarcube,” “Stockholm Syndrome,” Damage,” and “Moby Octopad.”

Over the summer of 2014, my parents picked up a bunch of Stephen King’s adaptations on DVD at a yard sale for like $2, one of which was THE SHINING mini-series. I accidentally ended up watching the second portion first, was a little confused why it picked up where it did, was pretty bored and felt stupid when I realized I had put the disc in on the wrong side (damn double sided DVDs). I ended up going back to watch part 1, and was so completely un-enthused with it that I never bothered watching the third part (and the DVD has sat in my room ever since).
—
Steven Weber did go on to have pretty good turn as a villain on iZOMBIE, so at least he did something good AND notable after Wings.

The best part of diamond and pearl was they gave evolutions to Pokémon from gen 1/2 that really needed it which they haven’t done since. Not dumb mega evolutions that use up an item and aren’t permanent and can only be one Pokémon, it’s so pointless ppl are only gonna use the best like 4 ones and never of the others so why not give more Pokémon a third stage evolution to make more Pokémon actually better competively and making the game better and more varied!!!!!!!😡

I’m pretty devastated that Brett won’t be here to spearhead these episodes much longer. It sounds like his position back at Capcom is more in line with what he was originally wanting to do there so I wish him the best.

Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion. Damn. I watch this movie every five years or so and I think this is the only time I have ever heard it brought up by someone other than my one friend. So much to love about that movie. I especially loved the weird synchronized staying alive dance in the first few minutes. I remember actually being jealous at the time that women could dance together like that without being judged. I lived in a small southern Alberta city then and being labeled gay was one of the worst things you could have happen to you. Thank Christ that times have changed and that I now can’t be bothered to care when I’m in the places that still have ass backwards thinking.

Memories like these are why I’m glad 302010 exists. I hope it continues with Brett’s departure. 97 was my graduating year and where else can I listen to a podcast and have “Oh, that’s right!!” moments every 15 minutes??

Talked about on the Disney game streams this week and Bonus Time, Brett’s going back to Capcom shortly, but they have a few 302010s in the bag already so the transition won’t be jarring and he’ll still be around, just not as much.

Of all the things to activate my brain in this episode, the thumbnail of the Friends clip above is doing it for me here. I didn’t realize until many years after the fact that one of my best friends basically patterned his entire aesthetic and speech cadence throughout middle and high school on coke-fueled-era Matthew Perry. It’s a shame we gradually fell off keeping in touch with each other, he’s a great guy.

I recently found your show and love the premise. However I don’t understand the need to force your political opinions into every episode. I have a limited of amount of time for entertainment so your podcast is perfect to listen to on my way into work. I am constantly bombarded by political opinions non stop these days. Can I have one 2 hour block where I’m not reminded that people are egotistical assholes who feel the need to let everyone know that their opinion is right and everyone else is a (warmongering/communist/nazi/sexist/unpatriotic/etc)?

Shit! I agree with you on a lot of it. Granted, it isn’t nonstop political commentary. However, I don’t understand how you seem to always find a way to interject an unrelated political opinion into a nostalgia show almost every time. Please for the love of god can I have one thing that doesn’t have to have a political slant?

Man I have so many fond memories of Diamond and Pearl. My friends and I were always into pokemon bit those games were the ones where we went batshit crazy. We all put 300+ hours into those games and when we had done everything possible and caught everything available we decided we still weren’t done. One of my friends held a Pokemon party where she made a whole bunch of pokemon themed foods. Then 8 of us decided to act as gym leaders and made themed teams like the gym leaders do and then emailed one of our group clues to our locations so he could challange us. We each designed a unique badge to hand out when he defeated us too. It was such a blast.

Pokemon Diamond and Pearl came out during my first year in college, and I was too lazy to go to Best Buy to buy the game. So I waited another week and found a local game store that had it, and it was during the time when there were mom and pop stores EVERYWHERE, and I didn’t have to pay sales tax. I played a lot out of that game, having fun exploring new environs, but I did not like the fog! Defog is a BS HM ability.

I love Romy and Michelle, and had a lot of fun watching it on ABC when they still had Saturday Night movies. Besides the dancing, what I really remember was that awkward scene about post-it notes. I’m with Diane, I refuse to go to my High School Reunion, I don’t want to see my old classmates, especially when I might be a bigger failure than they are.

I really like Saboteur, it’s a fun little thriller that holds up well for 1942. But the best part is when the main character convinces the Nazis he’s on their side and they take him to their headquarters in New York, and he gets out into the party that’s going on elsewhere in the mansion and warns someone about the Nazis and saboteurs. The guy he tells this to says something like “why should I listen to you, you’re not even dressed!” because the protagonist isn’t wearing a tuxedo, just a jacket and tie.

I’m sure I am the only one, but I really enjoyed the shining miniseries. I feel like it kept with the book much better thanks the movie, and I enjoyed the book SO much better than the movie. The movie is still great, but the mini series did a good job with the source material, and I love the hotel exploding more than jack being frozen in a stupid maze.

I feel pretty pathetic with my level of pop culture knowledge, or lack of for this episode. I really can only remember the George Strait song “I’ll be carrying your love with me”…From West Virginia down to Tennessee…stupid parents…and their stupid country music…and screw Jimmy Buffett too… But that clip of Jim and Dwight from The Office is HI-Larious!!!

I just wanted to share a quick memory about The Condemned. My buddy and I were on deployment in ’07 in Okinawa. We went to see the movie at the only theater on the base we were at, and during the previews, they showed a preview for The Condemned. We were super confused and basically sent the whole movie going “hey remember that?”. To this day I always tell him at movies, I hope we see the preview first.

Lisa Kudrow was never an actress I cared much for, but after I heard her on Kevin Smith’s podcast I saw her in a completely different way. They talked all about her entire career and her post-Friends shows sound very interesting. If anyone else wants to give a listen she’s on Smodcast episode 247: The One with Lisa Kudrow’s Comeback.

HEY! HEY!
So, April 28th 2007 is the day I got married! It’s not really pop culture related but needless to say it was a HUGE event for me. I sold my car to pay for the best party I could hope to ever throw. At my cousin’s wedding a few months later, his brother told me that my wife and I’s wedding was the best he’s ever been to.

The downside to the whole event is that my mother-in-law died 3 days later on May first. It was completely out of the blue. My father-in-law and two brothers-in-law moved in with us for pretty much that whole week. I being objectively the least crying called all of the relatives back for her funeral the next weekend.

Man I remember about this time 10 years ago I was a freshmen in college and trying to go out with an asian foreign exchange student. I gave her some soap or something that she needed and hoped it would be my in.

I also remember going up to Walmart at midnight to get a copy of Pokemon Diamond. I bought a DS specifically for it and loved the online trading. I remember spending hours trading with people online to get all sorts of pokemon.

I played the hell out of this game in 2007 but now don’t remember a lick about this generation. I still play Pokemon and get them when they launch so it’s a weird gap in my memory.

I remember all the girls in my eighth grade class just loved Sanjaya. Also I remember getting Diamond and Pearl at launch day at Toys R Us. Fortunately I had the original DS which couldn’t connect to any Wifi, so I didn’t experience GTS until late Gen 5.